BOSTON - The state's highest court this week upheld the convictions of a Connecticut man in a double murder in Springfield in 2002.

Nhut Huynh, now 33 and formerly of East Hartford, killed two Springfield teenagers outside the former Vy Da Cafe club on Locust Street during an argument on June 15, 2002.

In a decision written by Judge Francis X. Spina, the state Supreme Judicial Court Tuesday affirmed the convictions in the murder of the two 18-year-olds. The killer is serving two consecutive life sentences that were imposed following his conviction for first-degree murder in Hampden Superior Court on Nov. 7, 2003.

Armed with a .38-caliber handgun, he shot one man, Tuan Nguyen, in the head and the other, Huan Nguyen, in the stomach and then dumped the gun in a trash can before fleeing in a car back to Connecticut. The two victims were not related, but both were from the Forest Park neighborhood.

"There were two eyewitnesses who saw the defendant shoot Huan, one of whom also saw him shoot Tuan," Spina wrote.

Huynh was angry after one of the victims bumped into him outside the club a week before the killings and he attempted to provoke a fight with the man before shooting him, the court said.

Huynh displayed "consciousness of guilt" by fleeing, nearly causing an accident and leaving behind three young friends, including his girlfriend, with no way to return to Connecticut, Spina wrote.

In his defense, Huynh relied on tapes from a security camera of the argument outside the club and his private investigator's interpretation of the tapes.

Spina noted the videotapes were blurry and of poor quality and that the jury could judge the tapes for themselves.

In his appeal, Huynh said the trial judge, Peter A. Velis, erred in denying a motion to declare him innocent at the conclusion of the trial. Huyhn also asked the high court to grant him a new trial.